


beautiful things you will never forget

by honeyseong



Category: Kari-gurashi no Arietti | The Secret World of Arrietty
Genre: Angst, F/M, Forbidden Love, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Self-Indulgent, i'm not letting go of this movie, this is just me venting tbh, this is really short sorry lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-07-01 02:23:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15764655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeyseong/pseuds/honeyseong
Summary: They deserve the love they will never be able to share.





	beautiful things you will never forget

Love is hard. Love is what makes hearts swell and burst and break, like fragile little balloons floating around aimlessly, or thin glass bottles tipping over the edge of a table. Love is something that gives life and takes life away. On, off, on, off, flickering between life and death like a firefly in the dark. Love is hard for humans, for people who are so similar to each other: same height, same mind, same heart.

 

But love is much harder for many others, who fall for the wrong people, who love people who cannot love them back, who are in a relationship that barely works.

 

Love is the hardest for Sho and Arrietty. One a human, one a borrower; they are a couple designed to fail from the start. It is hard to love someone who is the size of your finger, just as it is hard to love someone who is at least 10 times larger than you. You cannot hold them, you cannot kiss them, you cannot do anything in a ‘normal’ way. Your love is the wrong size.

 

So they pretend like their feelings do not exist, although it is no easier than being together. Their hearts wrench and writhe in pain within their frail bodies, but the agony does not dissipate. Time can pass and nothing will be different.

 

Whenever they see each other, it’s always small interactions. Smiles reach their faces but their eyes are somber and cold. He holds her in his hands and tries to quell the tears because she’s too small and too delicate and too fragile. He cannot hug her and sob into her shoulder because she is no larger than a pin. She looks up at him and wonders if she could ever walk alongside him, hold his hand properly and kiss him on her tiptoes. They are wishing that things could change, that it wouldn’t be so hard to love the other. Neither of them confess, they don’t need to in order to know how the other feels.

 

Their souls are perfectly compatible, like two pieces of a puzzle, or cookies and cream, or tea and sugar cubes. They are a match made in heaven, but their bodies are not meant to last.

 

When Arrietty and her family leave, she is crying, sobbing, grasping Sho’s finger so tightly because she knows that it’s the last time she will ever see him. Sho bottles up his feelings, wanting to look strong, wanting to give her hope. He says that his heart is strong because she’s in it, but they both know that he will die soon.  _ I will remember you forever and ever _ , he says, but his forever will not last past two days. Soon, he will be simply weightless.

 

Arrietty only sobs louder, her tiny body shaking. Those aren’t the words she wants to hear. She lets the tears fall as she runs to the teapot.

 

“I love you,” Sho says suddenly.

 

He begins to cry, clutching his heart desperately. He is unsure of whether or not she can even hear him, but he repeats the words like a mantra, coming to terms with his own pathetic feelings.

 

“I always loved you.” He finally concludes, and begins to walk away.

 

Arrietty turns around, her eyes glossy.

 

“I love you too,” she whispers into the wind. “I’m sorry.”

 

He takes her love to the grave.

**Author's Note:**

> hi i'm back with angst also if you're reading this i love you ok


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